On the afternoon of March 8, the first 2019 Joint Committee Meeting of UTSEUS was held at Shanghai University. JIN Donghan, President and Secretary of the Party Committee of Shanghai University, GONG Siyi, Vice President and Deputy Secretary of the Party Committee of Shanghai University, PENG Zhangyou, Director of Academic Affairs, CHU Guizhong, Director of Finance Department, ZHANG Xiaotian, Assoiate Vice-President for Global Affairs, Philippe COURTIER, President of University of Technology of Compiègne (UTC), Etienne ARNOULT, Academic Affairs Director of UTC, Emmanuelle ROUHAUD, Academic Affairs Director of University of Technology of Troyes (UTT), Hanlin LIAO (professor UTBM), attended the meeting. Ghislain MONTAVON, President of UTBM, Xiaolu GONG (professor UTT) and Pierre KOCH, President of UTT, France, participated in the meeting remotely via video-conference system.

At the Joint Committee Meeting on October 29, 2018, the two parties decided to launch the study for the creation of a UTSEUS Master course of Shanghai University, leading to a degree, aiming at being admitted by the French State, after consultation by “Commission des titres d’Ingénieurs CTI” (French higher education quality assurance organization for engineering education), and allowing the award of a French national degree of master co-accredited by the Universities of Technology.

The Joint Committee this time focused on the preparations for the program. LIU Wanyu, dean of UTSEUS and Marc MONDIOU, French dean of UTSEUS, separately made reports on the developments of cooperation agreement, talent training model, curriculum list and financial condition of the program to the joint committee. Leadership from both Chinese and French sides highly recognized the efforts delivered by the UTSEUS team in the construction of the master program. Both sides agreed to fully prepare the application materials and report to the Chinese Ministry of Education, and meet for a further joint committee of UTSEUS at the end of May, 2019.

As the ending and highlight of the meeting, President JIN Donghan and President Philippe COURTIER signed a Memorandum of Understanding on the UTSEUS Master course of Shanghai University. Meanwhile, in view of the friendly and fruitful cooperation between the two sides for more than a decade, both sides agreed to extend the cooperation agreement of UTSEUS for at least 20 years from 2025. The two parties will set up a working group to set up a new joint education agreement by the end of 2020.

The Master’s Program is an essential extension of the undergraduate teaching system of UTSEUS. It might greatly help UTSEUS to establish a complete localization of engineer training system at Shanghai University and master the essence of French engineer education system to cultivate high-level international talents with a strong sense of social services, forward-looking innovation and outstanding abilities to solve complex problems.